NGOs seek facilitation in registration process

Welfare bodies say facing problems in using Punjab Charity Commission portal

RAWALPINDI:

With only days left in the deadline, most of the Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) and social welfare organisations have failed to register themselves on the online portal of Punjab Charity Commission due to complexities of the registration form.

The Punjab government had made it mandatory for all NGOs in the province to register with Punjab Charity Commission’s online portal until August 15.

Representatives of NGOs, charities and welfare organisations have urged the authorities concerned to extend the deadline for registration and make the registration process easier besides providing a helpline for filing the online registration forms.

The complicated registration forms as well as the poor network coverage in rural areas of the province, is proving to be an obstacle in the registration process, The Express Tribune learnt.

The untrained employees of the Punjab Social Welfare Department have also failed to give any assistance, officials of social welfare bodies said. The department owning the portal does not have people to run it properly and guide NGOs in using it, they said.

“IT illiteracy is rampant in government departments, if they do not know how to run an application, how will they guide the users,” an official of a social welfare organisation said.

Due to this, a number of NGOs, most of them being small scale organisations, have started to shut down their operations. This is worrisome for thousands of destitute people who rely on different projects of these organisations for their well-being.

Muhammad Shehbaz, who is linked with an NGO, told The Express Tribune that the registration form was extremely complicated. He added that the district social welfare department has failed to assist them in filling the form.

Shehbaz said that thousands of NGOs and welfare organisations were facing extreme difficulties in getting them registered on the online portal. Therefore, several charities and social welfare bodies have decided to close down temporarily to avoid any problems in the future.

Punjab government is known to have arrested members of NGOs whose licences had expired in operation against unregistered NGOs in recent years. The people, though out on bail, were still facing cases of foreign funding and terrorist financing due to extra efficiency of the Punjab police.

If the charities start shutting down due to problems in renewal of registration, thousands of unprivileged people who rely on these organisations would be affected, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 13^th, 2020.